Abstract

Recent climatological research predicts a significantly wetter climate in Southern Norway as a result of global warming. Thus, the country has already experienced unusually wet summer seasons in the last three years (2010–2012). The aim of this pilot study was to apply an existing multi-analyte LC-MS/MS method for the semi-quantitative determination of 320 fungal and bacterial metabolites in Norwegian cereal grain samples from the 2011 growing season. Such knowledge could provide important information for future survey and research programmes in Norway. The method includes all regulated and well-known mycotoxins such as aflatoxins, trichothecenes, ochratoxin A, fumonisins and zearalenone. In addition, a wide range of less studied compounds are included in the method, e.g., Alternaria toxins, ergot alkaloids and other metabolites produced by fungal species within Fusarium, Penicillium and Aspergillus. Altogether, 46 metabolites, all of fungal origin, were detected in the 76 barley, oats and wheat samples. The analyses confirmed the high prevalence and relatively high concentrations of type-A and -B trichothecenes (e.g., deoxynivalenol up to 7230 µg/kg, HT-2 toxin up to 333 µg/kg). Zearalenone was also among the major mycotoxins detected (maximum concentration 1670 µg/kg). Notably, several other Fusarium metabolites such as culmorin, 2-amino-14,16-dimethyloctadecan-3-ol and avenacein Y were co-occurring. Furthermore, the most prevalent Alternaria toxin was alternariol with a maximum concentration of 449 µg/kg. A number of Penicillium and Aspergillus metabolites were also detected in the samples, e.g., sterigmatocystin in concentrations up to 20 µg/kg.

Highlights

  • The 2011 weather conditions in Norway can be described as rather extreme both with regard to temperature and precipitation

  • The high occurrence of deoxynivalenol (DON), especially in oats, supports previous findings obtained in our national survey programme showing that the contamination of grain with this major trichothecene has constantly increased in recent years [2]

  • Trichothecenes, which could be expected considering that both F. graminearum and F. culmorum produce these compounds [20]

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Summary

Introduction

The 2011 weather conditions in Norway can be described as rather extreme both with regard to temperature and precipitation. The summer of the two preceding years were unusually wet in the southern part of the country as well It came as no surprise when our national survey programme revealed constantly increasing trichothecene concentrations in grain during the last decade [2]. The method has been validated for certain commodities and has successfully been employed for the analysis of a variety of raw and finished food and feed products as well as settled dust [4,5,6,7] The aim of this pilot study was to apply this multi-analyte method to field grain samples from the main cereal growing districts in Norway from a “worst-case season”, in order to point out which metabolites and metabolite mixtures should be prioritised in the future national survey and research programmes in Norway

Methodological Considerations
Metabolites Related to Fusarium
Metabolites Related to Alternaria
Ergot Alkaloids
Metabolites Related to Penicillium and Aspergillus
Toxicological Considerations
Chemicals and Reagents
Samples
Analysis
Conclusions

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